


Silent Shadows

by Jen425



Series: New Lights [4]
Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers, Power Rangers Ninja Storm
Genre: ...of sorts, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Backstory, Character Study, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, M/M, referenced character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 19:13:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19752070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: Aisha… isn’t proud of what she does, of leaving. But things come full circle.Eventually.





	Silent Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was supposed to end after the next one, but… oops?

Jenny dies, and everything changes. Aisha has been training since she was 12 years old for this, went out prepared for anything.

This isn’t her first fight for the Earth, after all.

But Warlord kills Jenny and her mom, and suddenly  _ nothing  _ is okay. And she’s fighting (sloppy, barely dogged that blast, now turn around and get them to shoot each other, grabbed from an explosion by Powerboy), but she can’t focus (should have paid more attention, she’s not truly Powered, and it’s her fault as Lightspeed goes from blur to down, on the ground, a cry in Powerboy—in  _ Dane’s voice  _ echoing _ , echoing… _ ), can’t fully believe in what she’s fighting for (certainly not when, in the distance, she can see the Dragon face Serpentman, and all that represents for her remaining best friend, and she  _ runs… _ )

They win, of course. Because they have to. Because that’s just what heroes do, and no one ever questions what it costs.

Aisha… isn’t proud of what she does, in the aftermath. Just… leaving. She hears that her replacement is older than her, that he fights well.

Must take less time to train, too.

She finishes off the year, at the Academy, graduating from all her extra training and experience, as Shade.

And Master Shadow offers her a chance at an exchange program, with the Wind Ninja Academy. She takes it, because she does.

(The convenience of her dad getting a new job in one of the Wind’s three funnel cities is not lost on her, but she hides her questions. There are some things civilians don’t need to know.)

She remembers being chosen for perfectly merging her discipline and her emotions, even so young. The Wind Academy is more than that.

As an added boon, they continue with the trio style of learning rather than Thunder, where her rare Gold form was just that.

And then, well… then she meets them.

Rocky and Adam.

They’re her team, in a way that is hard to pinpoint, deep inside here, like an itch that almost glows with colors.

It’s certainly more than an assignment.

Rocky is loud and fun and light as the air he can walk on. Adam is quiet and sweet and calm as the water he can control.

And, somehow, Aisha’s seriousness and truth is a perfect match, powerful and controlled as the Gold Thunder-Lightning she can make use of.

She doesn’t tell them all that much about her past, and they don’t ask. But perhaps that’s because she’s the only one who is no longer a kid.

No one who’s saved the planet and watched their best friend disintegrate can be called a kid.

She sometimes says something, offhandedly. Says “Tommy once pushed us both into a lake” or “Dane wants to become an Air Ninja”. Sometimes she can feel the shadow of memory cross her face, and they’re there for her, without question.

It’s nice to have someone she can talk to, about them.

She can’t tell her parents, after all.

One of the best parts, actually, is introducing her friends to her parents. She hasn’t done that in years, not since being chosen. They only know the bare minimum about the Academies, as is.

And then things change again, when the Green Ranger makes the news.

Aisha recognizes him, of course she does. She knows how Tommy fights. How he got involved in Ranger business is beyond her, as is how he was forced to evil’s side.

Most likely a spell.

It’s a shock to her system, and the past few months fade. She shuts Rocky and Adam out because it scares her, reminds her that Dane and Chris and Tommy are all still fighting, that she misses them, but she can’t go back because all they knew was Shade, not Aisha, and she’s not Shade, anymore.

“Aisha,” Adam asks. “Please, tell us what’s wrong.”

And Aisha replies simply and honestly.

“I can’t.”

Life continues. That business with Cameron, the son of their Sensei, is not quickly forgotten. Aisha continues to be silent.

And then, one day, it comes to a head.

“I swear to god, Aisha!” Rocky yells. “Tell us why you’ve been ignoring us for two months.”

“I can’t,” Aisha says, for the millionth time. “I’m sorry.”

“Then talk to us,” Adam says. “Whatever you can says.”

“I…” Aisha begins. “I don’t know how. I’ve never been able to, before.”

But somehow she says it, what she can. That she knows who the Green Ranger is and that she lost one of her best friends. That she ran away from a lot, after that, and now she’s so worried for her friends who stayed. That she can’t tell them more, and she’s sorry, and that…

“I love you,” she says.

And now things change again, for the better. She’s honest, and they don’t push, even when she worries about them.

Things go on like that for almost half a year (long enough for her to watch the Dragon come to Angel Grove, tempting her to find Tommy and punch him for all the rules that that breaks), and then Rocky kisses her. It’s right, so right, so natural… and yet missing a piece.

Aisha thinks she knows what it is, too, but she doesn’t know how to say it, doesn’t know how her boys will react.

To her surprise, it’s Rocky who says it.

“I love you,” Rocky says. “But… I… I thinks…”

“What?” Aisha asks, softly as she can be. Rocky looks at her, scared.

“I think I love Adam, too,” he says. Aisha forces herself not to laugh.

“Of course you do,” she says. “And he loves you. The question is… what are we going to do about it?”

Adam fits, too, though it still feels like they’re missing a piece.

And things find yet a new normal.

(Until they agree to compete in a Ninja competition, and Aisha finds herself staring the past in his apologetic face.)

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @flaim-ita


End file.
